Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Controlling Humidity With Air Conditioning


Have you ever thought why do you feel comfortable when you walk into an air conditioned room? Your probable answer will be because it is cold there. There is some truth there but that is not all. Take a good example. You go to a humid room where the temperature is 25°C and you will feel very uncomfortable but you walk into a room at the same temperature where you have a window air conditioner, you will feel comfortable. What is the difference?

The difference is the humidity. Our body, due to its metabolic activity produces heat. This heat has to be taken away from the body. If not the body temperature will rise and you will end up with fever. To have the body temperature controlled at 98.4°F, the body has a mechanism. This is done by sweating. When one gram of water evaporates it carries 540 calories of heat away. When we sweat and the sweat evaporates, our bodies get cooled. When you are in a low humidity air conditioned room the sweat evaporates quicker. But in a humid room the evaporation of sweat is slower. This is the reason why you feel more comfortable when you are in an air conditioned room.

Now how the Window air conditioner does make the room less humid? This is because when you are in an air conditioned room the evaporated sweat or any other water in the room for that matter will go to the air conditioner as water vapor. When this water vapor touches the cooling surface of the air conditioner some of the vapor molecules will become liquid i.e. water and will adhere to the cooling surface of the air conditioner. This water is sent out through a pipe line. This way the moisture in your body will end up outside the room making you feel cold and comfortable.

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